


Emergency Contact

by Esmethewitch



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Armitage Hux Has Issues, Armitage Hux's Drunken Monologues, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Crack, Crying, Daddy Issues, Dialogue Heavy, Drinking, Drunk Armitage Hux, Drunk Dialing, Gen, Humor, Hux didn't know Kylo Ren was Ben Solo, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Leia Organa has Issues, Poor Leia, why aren't there therapy groups in space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 11:02:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20469944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esmethewitch/pseuds/Esmethewitch
Summary: General Hux finds an unfamiliar commlink number listed under "emergency contacts" for Kylo Ren, most of the way through a bottle of whiskey. He's had it with Ren and his tantrums. Hopefully, this emergency contact can respond to the emergency that is his co-worker and usurper of the Supreme Leader's throne by taking him away.





	Emergency Contact

General Hux was two-thirds down a bottle of whiskey, but he didn’t pfassking care. He’d earned it after babysitting Kylo Karking Ren all day. How Snoke even find the destructive man-child? Why was he here? How could he get rid of him? Snoke was now dead, so if he got rid of the current self-appointed Supreme Leader, he could fill those shoes himself. Meta--medal--metaphoric shoes, right.

Not those weird gold carpet slippers he wore with that bathrobe. You could get plantar warts or athlete’s foot from wearing somebody else’s shoes. He’d just gotten over his athlete’s foot. Med-droid told him to spend less time wearing boots and more time wearing sandals to let the air circulate ‘round his toes, no way would he do that. Sandals weren’t uniform. If he wore sandals, his officers would want to wear them too. And nobody would be scared of someone wearing sandals. They looked silly. The boots would stay.

He blearily gazed straight ahead at his datapad, which was now open to personnel files. They all followed a standard format: Name or designation, rank, emergency contact, relevant allergies or other health issues…_emergency contact_, that was something. Each soldier in the First Order had to list someone to be notified in case of emergency. In most cases, it was just stormtroopers listing other stormtroopers who would want to know if they died in battle. Good manipulation material, that. If FN-3521 was acting up, all his CO would have to do was tell him what a shame it would be if something were to happen to GL-9073, it would be so tragic, wouldn’t it. It was an extremely effective tactic. If only FN-2187 had picked a new emergency contact after FN-2003 died...but there was no use dwelling on the past.

Emergency contacts had another use...they were somebody you could call in an accident, no, that’s not right, other thing, they still have a ward for it in medbay, emergence? No, emergency. Yeah. Call emergency contact, make the emergency go away, or at least spread it over to somebody else. Ren had to have one. He clicked over to Ren’s file. There was no name listed for emergency contact, but there was a commlink number. Here goes nothing.

He pressed the numbers into his comm, and waited. The other line clicked.

“Hello? Ben?_ Ben?_” This was a woman’s voice, gone slightly gravely with age, yet somehow familiar. It was Princess Organ, no, Leia Organa. Who was Ben?

“Dunno Ben,” Hux slurred. “You’re the ‘mergency contact for Kylo Ren. He’s an emergency. Can you come and take him away for us?”

There was dead air on the other line for a couple of minutes. Did he lose her? “Hello, hello, are you still there?”

“Who the kark are you, and how did you get this number?!” Leia Organa’s voice was tight with anger. “If this is some kind of practical joke…”

“ ‘s’not, promise. It’s General Hux. We call the ‘mergency contacts in a ‘mergency. Come take him away from us, please. He’s perfectly horrid.”

“He listed me as his emergency contact…” Leia sounded like she was about to cry.

“Yeah, I dunno why, he never talked about you…”

“I’m his _mother_!”

“You’re his mother?” Hux was aghast. Why did nobody tell him these things? Senator-now-General Organa’s son could be a powerful bargaining chip in the fight against the Resistance.

“Yes, and I don’t know how I went wrong with that boy. Well, I have ideas, but there’s no way of knowing which it was in the end. He used to be so sweet.”

“Wish I had a mother,” muttered Hux. “Obviously, I had one, youknowwhatImean, but she didn’t you know, stick around. With Dad being what he was, it was easy to see why. If I had my Dad’s kid, like, if I was a woman who wasn’t related to him, I wouldn’t want my child to be related to him. Right. Can’t blame her, but I wanted a mother. Ren’s so kriffing lucky he had a mother.”

There was a sigh from the other end of the line. “I think I didn’t pay enough attention to him when he needed it. I tried to ignore it when he started showing signs of...issues. I thought they’d go away, that he’d grow out of it if we gave him some space, but he didn’t.” He could hear what sounded like a bottle being uncorked.

“ ‘Least he knew you. I mean, I’m always wondering about my mother. She could of been awful, but she could of been nice.” Hux’s eyes filled with tears. Why did he keep drinking when he was distressed? It just made him sadder. “Dad never read me stories. Or sang to me. Or told me he was proud of me. That would’ve been nice.”

“My father was Darth Vader. He never acknowledged me as his daughter, and he tortured me.”

“Bastard,” Hux said. “Your father was a real bastard, to do a thing like that. All fathers are bastards. I’m glad I got to have Dad killed. Phasma did a good job.” He was about to start crying again. That was wrong. He was talking to his enemy, and he was _weak_.“I miss Phasma.”

“I miss my friends and adoptive family on Alderaan, and my friends on Hosnian Prime,” Leia remarked drilly. “And my son. The boy I used to know, not what he is now. And my brother, my husband too.”

“Lots of dead people, these days.”

“You killed a good portion of them.” He could hear some sort of liquid sloshing into a glass. “Kriff, I need a drink.”

“I’d offer you some of mine, but I don’t even think I’m in the same system as you.”

“You would have poisoned it.”

Hux sighed. “Probably.” This was one of the nicest conversations he’d had in months. Nobody was yelling at him or Force-choking him and throwing him against a wall. He rubbed his eyes. Then again, Ren got his Force-powers from his mother. But Leia had crazy Space-Witch powers and didn’t get off on throwing people against walls. Could the Resistance and the First Order swap Force-users? Some sort of exchange? No, she wouldn’t help them.

“Can you come and pick up Kylo Ren for us?” he pleaded.

“It’s probably a trap. No.”

“I’ll pay you. Lessee, what’s fuel cost, I’ll cover the shipping costs and then give you four times our special ops combat pay, you need it…”

“No. That man is no longer my son. He was Ben Solo, and I loved him, but then he made himself into Kylo Ren. The little boy I loved died at the temple massacre. Perhaps there is still a spark of Light within him, but at this point it is too dangerous to try.”

“Oh.” He bit his trembling lip in an effort not to cry.

“Are you alright?” Why did Leia sound concerned?

“I’m fine, it’s all so sad,” he burbled. “My Dad was an arsehole who beat me and called me useless, Kylo Ren Force-chokes me and my officers, your son is Kylo Ren and I’d cry if I was related to Kylo Ren, and whatever stuff of mine Kylo Ren doesn’t break, your Resistance is gonna blow up. I don’t have anything. Nobody has anything. We’re all gonna die. Not in a happy way.”

He could hear sniffling from the other line. It stopped quickly, but it was there. “Just a bit of sinus congestion,” Leia quickly stated. “I’m not crying.”

“Never said you were. But it’s sad.”

“I know.”

Hux took another swig of whiskey. Why did he do that? The alcohol burning down his already-sore throat was a mistake. Ren Force-choked him, he was getting a cold, and he was drinking. “I don’t want to keep fighting this war,” Hux confessed. “I’ve forgotten why we’re fighting it. I asked Dad once, and he just smacked me and said it was the done thing. I wanted to join the Resistance after that, but then I realized that if I did that, I’d just be proving myself immature. I mean, joining something only because your parents hate it is only a thing when you’re a teenager with no taste in clothes or music. Your son did that. You didn’t like the First Order, and now he stomps around with us and doesn’t wear anything but stupid black dresses. He calls them robes. But I’m not a whiny, emo, teenager. I’m an _adult_."

“I told you, I have no son anymore.”

“Aha!”

Leia took a gulp of her drink. “What?”

“You don’t love him uncomf...uncon...unconditionally, you see. You’re supposed to love your children unconditionally, I think. I read it in a book. Dad didn’t read any books before having me. That’s why I’m so messed up.”

“I loved him before he became a mass-murderer. Before he rejected the Light.”

“He left you.”

“I wish I knew why. I tried.”

“If I had a mother, I wouldn’t have left her,” Hux murmured. “It would have been nice to have a mother.”

“You’re only saying that because you’ve never had a mother. Or a child.”

“And I never will!”

Leia sighed. “We talked about that already. But what about the war? You wanted to stop fighting it?”

“I do, and I don’t. Not sure what else I’ll do. I don’t know how to do anything else.”

“Do you have a hobby?”

“What’s a hobby?”

“Something you do for fun. Like growing plants, or drawing pictures, or baking…”

“No, I don’t have hobbies.”

“Maybe you should try some. It might help you figure out what you like to do.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I think I’m gonna get a hobby.”

“That might help you there.”

Hux just had a terrible thought. “Why do you want to help me? You don’t like me. Nobody likes me.” It was true. “Everyone who liked me is either dead, or they left me.” Also true.

“No, I don’t like you. I am only carrying on this conversation because you are the most powerful person in the First Order right now, and I’d like to work on diplomatic negotiations so fewer people have to die. Sometimes, in politics, you work with those you personally despise for the greater good.” Her tone was sharper, and Hux heard something of himself in it. It was disconcerting.

“You personally despise me?”

“Yes, you blew up five planets.”

“Oh. I did.” He yawned. “ ‘s’late. Wanna sleep soon.”

“It is late. I should turn in soon, too. I would drink a lot of water, and eat some plain bread in the morning, if I were you.”

“Good advice. Thanks.”

“I think you’ll have one hell of a hangover in the morning.”

“It’ll go away. Kylo Ren won’t go away.”

“Goodnight, General Hux.”

“G’night, General Organa. Nice to just talk, y’know?”

Leia laughed. “It was nice to just unload for once. But if you keep doing this, I’ll start charging by the hour.”

“Noted.” They disconnected the call.

In the morning, Hux had the worst hangover of his life. His mouth felt like a herd of banthas had been stabled there, and his head felt like all of the troopers had used it as a punching bag. He splashed water over his face and blinked under the burning lights of his refresher.

After a couple of painkillers and some black caf, he felt almost human again. He logged into his datapad. Odd. He’d spent two hundred credits on watercolor paints, brushes, and papers at the HoloStore. He was going to cancel the order, but then he wondered what it might be like to try watercolor painting.

There was a new meeting on his events calendar, scheduled for the next month. _Diplomatic Meeting with Leia Organa_, it read. He could back out of it. But then he’d look like a coward. He’d have to grin and bear it. Well, realistically, grimace and bear it, but it came to the same thing. There was still a fifth of the bottle of whiskey left. He poured it down the refresher sink and got himself another cup of caf. He had to stop drinking. He made the worst decisions ever when he was drunk.


End file.
